


Skin Deep

by nerdyscully (dalecooperscoffee)



Category: Steins;Gate
Genre: Aftermath of Violence, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Canon-Typical Violence, Established Relationship, F/M, Scars, Sharing a Bed, Tsunderes, a bit of fluff in here too, steins gate worldline, the normal okakuri stuff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-09
Updated: 2018-01-09
Packaged: 2019-03-02 16:19:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,364
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13321920
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dalecooperscoffee/pseuds/nerdyscully
Summary: Time left its mark on Okabe. Kurisu tries to make sense of it with him.





	Skin Deep

**Author's Note:**

> this is the first thing i've written in FOREVER, so it might not be super good. it's proofread but not beta'd, still i feel like i enjoy how this turned out enough to share it. i just finished playing steins;gate 0 and my already unhealthy love for this series has increased.
> 
> so basically this is set in the steins gate worldline, a year after the events of the movie (Load Region of Deja Vu). okabe and kurisu are together but they're still a little bit inexperienced because it's them. also it gets kinda cheesy at the end. oopsie daisy.
> 
> hope you enjoy!

“You can...sleep here, you know,” Kurisu said, trying to hide the timid tone in her voice. Her boyfriend (yes, _boyfriend_ ) gave her a quizzical look. “D-don’t look at me like that! The trains stopped running and I don’t want you walking home.”

“It’s so nice of you to look after me, Assistant,” Okabe smirked. He patted his pockets for his phone, but Kurisu put a stop to it before it could begin.

“I-I just don’t want you walking alone at night!”

They had been together for a little less than a year. Kurisu was on her annual summer trip to Japan, after the eventful summer of 2011. This was their first summer “together”--meaning that this was their first summer as a couple. He still teased her, still called her Assistant and Christina, and as much as she protested against it, some small part of her found it slightly endearing (she wouldn’t admit it though!). Their dates weren’t traditional besides an occasional visit to MayQueen, but once Faris came around it felt less normal. Somehow, Kurisu was okay with that. Normalcy was boring. If she was content with tradition and things staying the way they were, she wouldn’t have become a scientist.

Her hotel room had been a place that they often came after their outings during the day. It was a nice place, but she didn’t like being there alone. It was so empty, everyone was so quiet, and Kurisu often found herself feeling lonely. They would talk in her room, her sitting cross-legged on the bed and him on the floor until Okabe scrambled to catch the last train to Ikebukuro. As the night went on, their barriers slowly fell down as they talked about science and their childhoods and their friends and America and Japan. Kurisu loved to watch Okabe’s eyes light up when he told a story about Mayuri, or see the way his brow furrowed when he was thinking through a scientific concept.

But despite all this, they had never slept together (in any way). So she understood the way Okabe balked at her proposition. “I guess since the trains have stopped running...I can stay here. I didn’t bring any sort of pajamas, though.” He was wearing his normal lab coat, t-shirt, and jeans.

“Um...just, um...you know!”

He raised an eyebrow. “I don’t believe I do.”

“Just wear your boxers, Okabe! God!” she hugged her knees to her chest and looked away.

“O-oh, uh,” he stammered in that way Kurisu had become accustomed to when he got nervous. “I suppose that would work. Do you have an extra blanket so I can sleep on the floor?”

She giggled. “You dummy, the bed’s a queen. Do you think I bite?”

“If I was Daru, I could make a very perverted joke out of that.”

“Well, then, thank God you’re not Daru. I’m going to go change.” she gathered her pajamas and went to the bathroom, leaving Okabe to himself.

She brushed her teeth and put her hair up, wearing her usual summer pajamas--a t-shirt with a cute anime character on it and shorts. She knew Okabe would tease her, but so be it. She had caught him lying around in the lab watching the latest robot anime, so he was no better. She stepped out of the bathroom where Okabe stood in his shirt and boxers, raising his hands above his head and yawning. She caught a glimpse of something as his shirt rode up. As she got closer, she noticed it was a scar, a noticeable one.

“Okabe?” she asked.

“Hm?” he said, his shirt concealing his scar again.

“What is that?”

His brow furrowed--he didn’t know she had noticed. “What’s what?”

“Um, on your stomach I saw, you have a--”

He blushed; he knew what she was trying to say and he tried to divert the situation. “What are you, a peeping Tom? We were just talking about Daru, weren’t we? You even have the moe shirt to match…”

“Do you have a scar on your stomach, Okabe?”

He looked down. “I...might.”

“Can I see?”

He nodded, and reluctantly raised his shirt. But he didn’t stop at just the bottom part of his stomach; the scar was bigger than she expected. She wondered how recent it had happened, since it hadn’t completely faded away, but was healed.

Then it dawned on her.

“Okabe. Was this when my father…?” the ashen look on his face said it all. She ran her finger along the outline of his scar, light as a feather. The day was so vivid in her memories. At the time, she was baffled as to why this man she didn’t even know would risk his life for her. But then, after they met in the street, she started having thoughts and dreams that suggested to her that things were different. That she did know this man, perhaps better than she knew anyone else.

"It's not a pleasant memory," he chuckled in the way people do when something isn't funny at all. Even she remembered the frantic nature of that moment; she had a hard time imagining that level of pain. Even when her father was choking her, it was probably nothing like being stabbed.

As she examined his scar--it was so _deep_ , she wondered how he survived--she noticed his breaths become shallow and his eyes go off into a distant place. She wondered what other scars that time had left on Okabe. She knew wasn't just skin deep. She saw the effects of these scars when he changed from pompous, grinning Okabe to a scared, shaky man.

She didn't want to torture him with memories any longer. “Okabe...I’m sorry,” she put his shirt down and wrapped her arms around his waist.

He eventually melted into her arms, her hands moving soothingly up and down his back. “I’m sorry,” she whispered again.

“It’s not you. I promise.” he leaned down a little bit and placed a kiss on her lips. Kissing was something they had become less and less shy about. It had gone from awkward, timid, and experimental to something that Kurisu knew she would miss when she went back to America.

“So this is why I can’t get you to go swimming with me, huh,” she teased him lightly, touching the fabric of his shirt that covered the scar.

“That, and I’m pale as a ghost. It’s part of the mad scientist look.”

She tugged his shirt to lead him to the bed. “What, to be the same color as your lab coat?”

“It’s a form of camouflage, and a great scientist like Hououin Kyouma always needs to be on guard. Constant vigilance!” They both got under the covers, their banter almost making them forget that they had never slept in the same bed together. _It’s almost like we’re a married couple, going to sleep after a day together…_ Kurisu thought to herself, then blushed a little at her thought. It was too early to think about marriage! ( _Was it?_ She wondered).

She turned out the light and curled up on her side, facing toward Okabe. “Try to get some sleep, okay?” she said.

“Okay,” he kissed her forehead, something that made her stomach flutter every time he did it. She closed her eyes, enjoying the comfortable silence. _This wasn’t as awkward as I thought it could be._

“Kurisu?”

She opened one eye. “Hmm.”

“I hope you don’t think different of me. I know it’s not attractive, but--”

She interrupted him. You dummy!” she giggled a little. “Do you think I’m that shallow?”

“I don’t,” she saw him smile in the darkness and instinctively wrapped her arms around him. She was falling asleep quickly, even though her mind was a little giddy that she was sleeping in Okabe’s arms. ( _You’re such a normal,_ Kurisu thought to herself. Then again, anything with Okabe involved wasn’t “normal”.)

He assumed she was asleep, but she heard him whisper, “I wouldn’t care how many scars I got, if it meant I could save you.” Those were the last words spoken before both of them fell into a peaceful sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> again, sorry for not posting much lately. i haven't been able to find any inspiration, but this was just something that popped into my mind today after talking about okabe's scar with a friend. thank you for reading, i hope to post more frequently this year. xoxox


End file.
